Focus on food sources on opening weekend, make sure of your target

The 2022 white-tailed deer hunt in Wisconsin starts Saturday with the opening of the archery and crossbow seasons and Department of Natural Resources officials expect another fall of high hunter participation and an opening weekend where they’ll want to focus on dawn and dusk as the times to be in their stands.

The season starts Saturday and runs through Jan. 8, 2023 in most locales, though a record 29 deer management units have enacted the option of extending the season through Jan. 31. Most of those are in the southern half of the state.

Preliminary weather forecasts for opening weekend are calling for temperatures in the 70s and possibly low 80s in some parts of the state with some rain chances, especially on Sunday.

“Remember to get out there early in the morning and then sit until right to the end of shooting hours in the evening because the deer will be moving early and late,” said Matt Esser, the DNR’s deer biologist for the West Central District in a media briefing session Wednesday. “Another tip that you can use is that deer are very predictable this time of year. They’re going from food sources to their bedding areas.”

So, the key to opening weekend success, Esser said, is to find food sources deer are hitting right now and hope they visit them during shooting hours. Food sources could be a white oak tree that’s dropping a lot of acorns, apples, plums, or hazelnuts.

“If you can focus in on those key food sources and then find out where the deer are bedding then you can hunt in between them,” Esser said. “This is a good time of year as the deer are very predictable heading from feed to bed.”

While a lot of attention is devoted annually in Wisconsin to the nine-day gun hunt in late November, Jeff Pritzl, the DNR’s deer hunting specialist, said interest in archery equipment started rising in the state decades ago and may have reached a peak with the Covid effect two years ago.

“One of the things that we do annually is we survey a segment of our deer hunters through a mail survey that we send out to 10,000 hunters every year,” Pritzl said. “With the information they provide back to us, we can estimate that last year there were 7.3 million hunter days of effort that went out into the fall and twothirds of that effort is archery or crossbow hunting. We know, of course, it’s a longer season but about two-thirds of our deer hunting effort is archery equipment and one-third is firearm equipment.”

In 2021, hunters harvested 97,329 deer in Wisconsin with archery equipment, according to DNR statistics. Of that total, 58,352 were taken by crossbows, including 36,195 bucks, while another 38,977 were harvested with vertical bows, including 24,111 bucks.

The use of crossbows surged in Wisconsin when their use was legalized for all hunters starting in 2014. In Taylor County, for example, deer harvests by crossbow hunters passed those of vertical bow users after just one season, in 2015, and last fall, the crossbow harvest in the county more than doubled the vertical bow harvest 1,123 to 468.

Taylor County hunters are also reminded this is year two of a three-year baiting and feeding ban in the county. Only 14 counties in the state do not have such bans.

“In terms of the participation rate we still see an increasing trend in interest in using crossbows,” Pritzl said. “A couple of years ago, the use of crossbow relative to vertical bow actually surpassed vertical bow both in license sales and in deer harvest. It’s almost 50-50 right now in terms of the license sales between the two. Harvest rates are a little bit higher with crossbows and they do take relatively a few more animals.

“What we’ve seen as a result is the overall harvest of deer, especially bucks is it’s shifting earlier in the fall essentially out of the nine-day firearm season and into the archery season,” Pritzl added. “That shift started 30-40 years ago with just a general interest in archery hunting. The rate of that change, didn’t change once crossbows came onto the scene. What it really reflects I believe is simply a general enthusiasm for deer hunting and a general desire to be able to hunt for longer periods of time and during the time of the year when deer hunting is the best because deer are moving the most. And that’s earlier in November. We’ve seen this shift in effort but it’s not necessarily focused on a preference for weapon type as it is the time of year.”

Pritzl reminded hunters that it is important to remember to register your deer online or by phone when you are lucky enough to harvest one.

“The harvest of deer requires mandatory registration of that animal,” Pritzl said. “That creates the data set that allows us to do good comprehensive deer management in this state. Deer registration is mandatory and it helps them, it helps the deer population and it helps us make good decisions going forward.”

Pritzl noted in recent years about 60% of the buck harvest is still achieved with firearms and about 40% is with bows and crossbows. He said in 2020 archery and crossbow license sales jumped by about 25,000. They dropped about 2,000 last year and it will be interesting to see where they end up this fall.

Don’t shoot elk, moose

Hunters are reminded to know their target before they shoot and understand the difference between elk and whitetailed deer this hunting season.

Elk sometimes venture outside of the elk management zones, especially during the breeding season, so hunters are reminded to properly identify their target. Any elk taken without a tag may result in a fine and a revocation of your hunting license.

To identify an elk:

  Adult elk are larger than adult deer. An adult elk stands about 1 to 2 feet taller than an adult deer at the shoulders. An elk calf will be about the same size as an adult white-tailed doe but will display similar coloration to adult elk.

  Spot the difference in the antlers. White-tailed deer antlers curve forward, whereas elk antlers are larger and sweep back from their heads.

  Look for color markings. Elk have a tan rump patch, black legs and a dark brown mane. Deer have legs the same color as their bodies, a white throat patch and a fluffy white tail.

  Additional markers. Elk moving throughout the state may have noticeable markers including colored ear tags or tracking collars. These collars are fixed around the neck and are typically orange in color, sometimes with a visible printed number.

Although Wisconsin has not reintroduced moose, there are several verified moose sightings across northern Wisconsin each year. A few hunters may even be lucky enough to see one this fall.

Currently, there are two herds containing a total of more than 450 elk in Wisconsin reintroduction areas. One is in the north including Ashland, Bayfield, Price, Rusk and Sawyer counties. The other is in the area surrounding Jackson County. Occasionally, elk can roam beyond these areas, so it is important for deer hunters statewide to be sure of their target.